Why does God allow deception?

God gives people, at times, according to the real bent of their hearts' desire. "… because of this, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2:11-12) If men will not have the truth when it is put before them, they shall, assuredly, have a lie. If they will not have Christ, they shall have Satan; if they will not have heaven, they shall have hell.

If man resists the light of divine testimony, he is shut up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart. God leaves him to himself, and then Satan comes in and carries him headlong to perdition. There was abundant light for Pharaoh, to show him the extravagant folly of his course in seeking to detain those whom God had commanded him to let go. But the real disposition of his heart was to act against God, and therefore God left him to himself, and made him a monument for the display of His glory "through all the earth."

There is a vast difference between the divine method of dealing with the heathen (Rom. 1) and with the rejecters of the gospel. (2 Thess. 1, 2) In reference to the former, we read, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind:" but with respect to the latter the word is "because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, … God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned." The heathen refuse the testimony of creation, and are, therefore, left to themselves. The rejecters of the gospel refuse the full blaze of light which shines from the cross, and, therefore, "a strong delusion" will, ere long, be sent from God upon them. This is deeply solemn for an age like this, in the which there is so much light and so much profession.

So will it be with Christendom, "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2 Thess. 2:10-11).

1. Intense human activity, bringing man to a climax. There is to be "a falling away" — an apostasy. This means great activity in the region of mind. The thinking of religious mankind will be subverted.

2. Intense Satanic activity, bringing the powers of darkness to a climax. The coming of that wicked one is to be "after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders." …

3. A Divine fiat on God's part, putting His seal upon man's climax to its destruction. What men will proudly regard as the enduring monument raised to celebrate man's glory, turns out to be the dirty sepulchre wherein it is to go to corruption, and God puts His seal upon that sepulchre by the sending forth of "strong delusion" as an act of His holy government, and no man can roll away the stone when once that is done.

We must also notice how just are all the dealings of God with men. Those who will fall a prey to all this deceit of unrighteousness, are just those who when they heard the truth did not love it. Loving not the truth, they did not believe it, rather they had pleasure in unrighteousness. And now the deceit of unrighteousness captures them; they believe the lie, and they all fall under the judgment of God. Formerly God sent them the truth, the Gospel was sounded into their ears by men who preached it "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven" (1 Peter 1:12). Now God sends them a strong delusion. He does for them what of old He had to do for rebellious Israel, when He "blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart" (John 12:40). Is God unrighteous in acting thus? On the contrary; He is acting in righteousness of the strictest and most exact kind.

Instead of getting that guidance for which we profess to ask, may we not rather expect a lying spirit to be sent forth to us? … Ahab was at no loss for counsellors. He speedily "gathered together four hundred prophets," who were ready to counsel him according to his heart's desire.

Note the vast difference of the way of God's dealings in the case of the professing Church and the world at large. To the professing Church which had had the truth and not loved it, God sends strong delusion to believe a lie, whereas to the world at large the Gospel of the kingdom and the everlasting Gospel are sent as a warning and to call men.

Be it then noted, that this is not said of Pharaoh until after he had contemptuously rejected the claims of Jehovah. He had said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." He rejected the word of the Lord, placed himself in open antagonism to Him and His people; and now his heart is judicially hardened. And God still acts upon the same principle. … Let the warning sink deep … There will be a time even for them, if they continue to refuse the gospel of God's grace, when it will be impossible for them to obtain salvation.